No. 2 West Texas A&M Lady Buffs open LSC softball play

The No. 2 West Texas A&M Lady Buffs softball team is hoping to get off to a better Lone Star Conference start this season than a year ago.

Last season, the Lady Buffs opened conference play at 2-4. This season, WT coach Kevin Blaskowski said he is looking for a strong start in a tough conference when the Lady Buffs (11-3) begin a three-game series against Tarleton State (14-7) at 5 p.m. Friday at Stephenville.

“It’s really hard to say (who the favorite is) right now,” Blaskowski said. “There are five or six very good teams. I feel like we are right there in that mix. The first couple of weekends are going to be big. We’ve got Tarleton on the road and come back with Midwestern State at home. Last year, we got off to a slow conference start, and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Blaskowski said it is a tough start to the Lone Star Conference schedule.

“Tarleton is very good,” Blaskowski said. “They’ve got very good pitching, and they’ve got a couple of the top offensive kids in the conference. It’s going to be a great challenge. Tarleton is a tough place to play. We’ve got to come out and establish that we can play three games in a row well.”

Blaskowkski said he is happy with the early success of the offense.

“We are starting to get comfortable in our roles with 14 games in,” Blaskowski said. “At this point, I’m pretty happy with where we are offensively. The big key is going to be how well our pitching staff throws.”

Blaskowski said the No. 2 national ranking just adds to the pressure each game.

“That continues to put a bigger target on our back every weekend,” Blaskowski said. “It’s exciting to be recognized as one of the top two teams in the country. It’s a great challenge also. Everybody wants to have a shot to knock you off. That just adds to the importance of this weekend.”